KTVH-DT operates low-power translator KTGF-LD (channel 50) in Great Falls, where Scripps also owns CBS affiliate KRTV.

The only full-service commercial TV station serving Montana's capital city for most of its history, channel 12 came to air in 1958 as KXLJ-TV and struggled through a fight with a competing local cable company, during which it shut down for six months before eventually being purchased by the firm.

[9] Studios and transmitter were located at the southwest corner of Cherry Street and Montana Avenue, and the station broadcast with an effective radiated power of just 973 watts.

In January 1959, arguments were heard in a lawsuit by Z-Bar versus Helena TV, with KXLJ-TV's counsel arguing that the cable firm had "used our property for gain without our consent".

[12] FCC chair John C. Doerfer planned to visit Montana, but he was called to present the commission's budget to the House of Representatives and could not make the trip.

[21] After the FCC approved of the sale, the stations became KBLL radio and television formally on March 29[5] and began using the designation on April 10; that same day, Spokane's KREM and KHQ-TV returned to the cable lineup after 20 months.

[26] In early 1968, negotiations began to sell KBLL radio and television to a partnership of Tim Babcock, the then-serving governor of Montana, and Willard L. Holter of Glasgow.

[33] New call letters KTCM ("Television for the Capital of Montana") were selected for the TV station, and an application was filed to move the transmitter to Hogback Mountain.

With debts coming due, licensee Helena TV, Inc. (of no relation to the 1960s company) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in June 1983.

[41] In December 1984, a bankruptcy court approved the sale of channel 12 to Great Northern Communications, which signed a contract to purchase the license and physical assets for $1.16 million in March 1985.

[45] Meanwhile, Radeck made purchases of new equipment and planned new weekend and morning newscasts as part of an overhaul to give Helena a "full-service news operation".

If KTVH had lost the NBC affiliation, with Helena in the viewing areas of KFBB-TV from Great Falls for ABC and KXLF-TV from Butte for CBS, its future would have been uncertain.

[49] In February 1997, with the Grapevine sale application having fallen apart the month before, Sunbelt then moved to buy the station from Big Sky,[50] announcing plans to build a studio at a site adjacent to Carroll College.

Sunbelt sought to replicate what it had done at KENV in Havre and proposed constructing KBBJ (channel 9), a satellite station of KTVH to be based at Montana State University–Northern.

The station in the Hi-Line attracted some concern from the incumbent NBC affiliate in Great Falls, KTGF (channel 16), which claimed Havre as part of its market.

[57] Sunbelt then announced it would start KBAO (channel 13) in Lewistown, which was also in the Great Falls market; simultaneous with the news, KTGF purchased a translator in that town.

[60] Financial troubles in 2001 led to cutbacks at KTVH, including the end of a 5 p.m. newscast and a short-lived 9 p.m. show it produced for KMTF,[61] which soon after lost the Fox affiliation.

[67] The name stuck, even though the Havre and Lewistown stations closed on January 25, 2008;[68][69] in July 2009, Sunbelt requested that the licenses for KBBJ and KBAO be canceled.

[70][71] KTVH itself was the first television station in Montana to cease analog broadcasts, doing so on November 10, 2008; the accelerated switch was carried out to avoid major work at the Hogback Mountain site during February winter weather conditions.

In 2010, KXLH-LD started local newscasts for the Helena area, produced by KRTV in Great Falls, which quickly attracted considerable viewership.